I nd u s t r i a l R e s earch O ffice N ewsletter
Fall 2009
FieldTurf Partners with Penn State to Make Fields Safer for Athletes. Page 4 From the Director / Tech Transfer News Briefs. 2
Penn State and Bayer Innovation create bioabsorbable bandage. 3
Penn State and Norfolk Southern Develop Battery-Powered Train. 5
Penn State Experimental and Computational Convection Lab. 6
Upcoming Events. 7
Innovation Park Featured Invention: Improve Turfgrass Cultivation. 8
Cover Photo Credit: Annemarie Mountz
from the director - Tanna Pugh, Industrial Research Office
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s I sit at my desk to write this letter, I am once again reminded to be thankful for all of the great people working around me. Penn State is a great institution and so is the Industrial Research Office. It is with pride that I say this. Before we know it, the holidays will be upon us and we will reflect on all that we have been given. One of the items on the top of my list is my office staff; they are wonderful people and friends.
In the past two weeks, the IRO staff hosted four corporate visits, two of which included 20 and 30 representatives from two separate companies. These were large, complex events. One included a customized poster session with more than 100 faculty members and graduate students, individual meetings with our large interdisciplinary institutes, and one-on-one meetings with faculty researchers. Without a true team atmosphere, these events would not be as successful or as productive for you, our industrial partners. Everyone contributed by offering their talents and their time. These efforts often go unnoticed and I share these comments so you know that when you work with the IRO – you are in good hands. I invite you to experience a day at Penn State as a guest of the IRO. We will create an agenda that complements your technical interests, introducing you to some of our best faculty researchers in a very coordinated and organized fashion. We hope that your time on campus will be productive and that you will find our services of value. Wishing you the best this holiday season,
T e c h
T r a n sf e r
N e w s
B r i e fs
Penn State Names New Vice President for Research
Penn State Solar Decathlon Results
Henry C. “Hank” Foley, dean of Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, has been named the University’s vice president for research and dean of the Graduate School.
Penn State finished 16th out of 20 teams in the 2009 Solar Decathlon in Washington, DC. The competition challenged students to design, build, and operate the most attractive, effective and energy-efficient solarpowered house. Penn State ranked third for two of the 10 events in the competition, engineering and lighting design. Although Penn State’s home, Natural Fusion, placed well short of their 2007 4th place finish, many teams this year hired professional contractors to help build the homes while Penn State students built their home almost entirely by themselves. The team’s home was completed later than others, missing key time to produce power. www.solar.psu.edu
http://live.psu.edu/story/42763
Penn State Ranked #5 Worldwide in Elsevier Alternative Energy Research Leadership Study Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, recently analyzed the scholarly output in alternative energy research from more than 3,000 research institutions. Penn State ranked 5th worldwide and was the top ranked university, following research laboratories: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and two research laboratories in Germany. www.elsevier.com
Latest Edition of Research/Penn State Magazine The upcoming issue of Research/Penn State magazine will include major features on the successful sequencing of the woolly mammoth genome; understanding why individuals join—and—leave—terrorist organizations; using remote sensing to image and predict volcanic eruptions; advances in the less invasive treatment of epilepsy; and the effects of global warming on the health of coral reefs. www.rps.psu.edu
Network of Academic Corporate Relations Officers NACRO is a network of corporate relations professionals from research universities, including Tanna Pugh from the Industrial Research Office, dedicated to providing its members with best practices that further enable the development of mutually beneficial relationships with industry. As corporations expand globally but work locally, they seek the “front door” to an academic institution that a university corporate relations office can provide. Membership in NACRO is limited to staff of four-year institutions of higher education (with a focus on research universities) who devote at least 50% of their time to corporate/industry relations. The next annual meeting will be hosted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on August 12 and 13, 2010.
Penn State Receives National Intelligence Award Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology was recently designated an Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, paving the way for IST students to combat cybersecurity threats at the national level when they graduate. With the designation comes a two-year, $1 million grant from the ODNI with a possible three-year $1.5 million extension. The funds will be used to further Penn State’s research in areas related to national security and intelligence, with the goal of producing students who can become leaders in the U.S. intelligence community. http://live.psu.edu/story/42082
Applied Research Lab (ARL) Leases Anechoic Chamber in Warminster Township The Applied Communication Technology (ACT) Department at ARL maintains and operates the Warminster Anechoic Chamber, one of the largest of its kind, providing a fully controlled environment for their customers, sponsors, and industrial partners to analyze the entire endto-end design of a communication system. The chamber is well-suited for low frequency antenna characterization (100 Mhz), customized R&D, fabrication and full-scale system testing. www.arl.psu.edu
www.nacro.us
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www.iro.psu . e d u / t h e i r o n
Bandage
of the
Future
Dr. Jeff Catchmark, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (right) and Ph.D. Student, Yang Hu (left). Photo Credit: Tom Laird
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n 2006, representatives from Bayer Innovation attended an industry Crossover event at Penn State and were intrigued by a presentation given by Jeff Catchmark, Associate Professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering. “We were about to complete our portfolio of wound care projects,” says Burkhard Fugmann, Vice President of Medical Technologies/Life Sciences at Bayer Innovation, “and Jeff had suggested a promising new approach for bio-absorbable materials.” Colleagues of Fugmann’s from Bayer MaterialScience had completed other projects with Penn State and highly recommended working with the University. Fugmann also appreciated Catchmark’s reputation as a scientist, his enthusiasm about his work, and the promising perspectives of his project proposal. A partnership was formed in 2007. “Bayer Innovation was interested in bio-absorbable wound care materials, particularly for chronic wounds,” says Catchmark. The goal was to develop a material that would aid in the healing of wounds and would degrade over time. “This is important for most wounds, but specifically chronic wounds because you don’t want the healing tissue to integrate with a non-degradable material such as gauze. After the wound is healed and you remove the bandage, some of that gauze might be embedded in the tissue. If you pull at the gauze, it disturbs the healing tissue. Ideally, you’d like to have a material that facilitates the healing process but also vanishes.” “The solution was to combine a certain nanofiber type of cellulose with certain cellulose-degrading enzymes,” says Fugmann. “The research results became the basis of a patent application.” One of the reasons that this approach works, Catchmark adds, is because the bio-absorbable material degrades into glucose. “The glucose just becomes a part of the sugars in the blood stream.” Working together, Catchmark and Bayer Innovation solved
technical issues of selecting the enzymes and suspension compounds that will be compatible with the wound area. The group also discovered a way to enhance the product’s manufacturability. “The big crux of the problem, and perhaps the reason why no one has done this in the past, is if you try to incorporate enzymes into the material, they become active and the material starts to degrade,” explains Catchmark. The risk is that the material will degrade into a sugar solution before it can be used. “We found that we could freeze dry the material and preserve the activity. Now, you can simply open the bandage packet, hydrate the material using sterile water, and put it on the patient.” The bandage is now in the testing phase. “We’re hopeful that a product will be ready to manufacture soon,” Catchmark says. The research on the bandage serves as the basis of another application. “Originally, we were looking at wound care, but a big issue now is tissue engineering,” Catchmark continues. “We’re further engineering this bio-absorbable cellulose material for bone and cartilage regeneration.” He adds that Bayer is also interested in this research. Both Catchmark and Fugmann say that the relationships between their two entities and with the Industrial Research Office (IRO) have been invaluable to the research. “Bayer Innovation not only provides good planning guidance, but you can have good technical discussions with them,” Catchmark says. “The IRO has also been extraordinarily helpful in setting up the partnership.” “A company like Bayer does not do fundamental scientific/ technological work,” adds Fugmann. “We fund applied research work at universities to gain access to new technologies, which can lead to new products that the company can sell through its distribution channels or those of our commercialization partners.” Jeff Catchmark | jmc102@psu.edu
Fall 2009
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FieldTurf Partners with Penn State to Make Fields Safer for Athletes
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n the surface, it seems like a strange partnership – a Penn State turfgrass researcher and a company that specializes in synthetic turf. Yet, both say it is a partnership that not only makes sense, but could help make athletics safer.
The company, FieldTurf, is the worldwide leader in synthetic fields, having developed the new style of turf used in the NFL, and on college and athletic fields around the country. Even though FieldTurf prides itself on its R&D capabilities, says Darren Gill, Director of Marketing, the company was also looking for a university partner who can augment what is currently being done internally. “Truth be told, when we sought out this partnership, we only had one partner in mind, and that was Penn State, largely because of Dr. McNitt.” Andrew McNitt, Associate Professor of Soil Sciences-Turfgrass, has conducted research and developed tools to make natural grass fields safer for athletes. “The new in-fill turfs came along in the late 1990s, and I work a lot with NFL and college field managers who were asking me what I thought of the new turf fields,” he explains. McNitt began to evaluate different configurations of the synthetic turf systems, and in 2001, he decided to do a side-by-side study of natural turf and different synthetic turfs, which is on-going. “FieldTurf approached us about a partnership to develop an institute that would magnify the amount of research we were doing.” In July 2009, the Center for Sports Surface Research was launched within the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State. Not only will the Center look at synthetic fields, but it will also research surfaces of running tracks, basketball floors, and other athletic surfaces. The Center is generating a lot of interest from potential industry partners, who McNitt hopes to begin bringing aboard in the spring. He adds that the Center’s research will be of interest to almost any industry involved in athletics or recreation. For example, research can investigate how the size of a player interacts with turf in order to make safer cleats. McNitt also predicts that manufacturers of helmets, sports and playground equipment, and infill material will also be interested in research opportunities. McNitt admits that when he first began his synthetic turf research, many of his colleagues in turfgrass were angry. “They saw it as competition,” he says. “Now, synthetic turf is part of the business, and they need to become educated on it.”
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Photo Credit: Annemarie Mountz
McNitt credits the Industrial Research Office (IRO) for taking the lead in building the relationship with FieldTurf. “The relationship began through the research I had done before,” he says, “but the IRO was a big help in formalizing the relationship and getting it to move forward.” McNitt expects the IRO to be equally helpful in developing relationships between the Center and industries interested in research partnerships. The partnership between Penn State and FieldTurf is contracted for five years. “We have aggressive short-term and long-term plans related to research and we feel as though we are off to a very strong start,” says Gill. “We’re invigorated,” he adds. “We’re doing something that has never been done in the sports industry.” Andrew McNitt | mcnitt@psu.edu
www.iro.psu . e d u / t h e i r o n
Penn State and Norfolk Southern Develop Battery-Powered Train
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n September 2009, Norfolk Southern unveiled its NS 999, a prototype 1,500-horsepower switching locomotive that relies solely on rechargeable batteries for power. When the company set out to design and build this all-batterypowered locomotive, they had little experience with batteries and the assembly of battery plants. So the company needed a partner to help with battery research and testing. Gerhard Thelen, corporate vice president responsible for research and development, contacted Penn State’s College of Engineering, and with the assistance from the Industrial Research Office, representatives from Norfolk Southern spent a day meeting with faculty members and researchers.
NS 999 is an entirely electric locomotive that uses a lead-acid energy storage system comprised of 1,080 12-volt batteries to operate in railroad switching applications without the use of a diesel engine and with zero exhaust emissions.
“It’s what we call cycle life,” explains Wang, “and that’s very important because that determines the life of the battery system, which is a very expensive component in the locomotive.” Wang’s research group has been conducting experimental testing and computer modeling to learn the battery cycle life and how to extend it.
“In that one-day visit, we were able to assess the abilities of Penn State researchers working in our particular areas of interest,” says Thelen. “We knew about the difficulties in managing the batteries properly so you don’t lose the life or create safety issues. In the visit we had, the researchers convinced us that through testing and modeling, they could come up with a duty cycle that would optimize the life and prevent any safety issues from occurring.”
Rahn’s role in the research is system dynamics. “My job is to develop the models to be used by systems engineers so they can analyze the system to see how it is performing—to predict the state of charge in the actual battery system, for example,” says Rahn. “One of the things we’re doing is developing a meter that will provide the status of every single battery in the system.”
Also, Thelen adds, because of the number of batteries in the locomotive (over 1,000) and the high cost involved, Norfolk Southern preferred that testing on charging and discharging the batteries was done in the lab first.
The team has completed its first year of research and has received funding for a second year. “During that first year, we were looking at the actual batteries and testing under different concepts of charging and discharging,” explains Rahn. “And this will continue.”
Thelen and his team are working with Chris Rahn, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and Chao-Yang Wang, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Electrochemical Engine Center, one of the top fuel cell and battery research labs in the country. Partial funding for the collaborative research project comes from the U.S. Department of Energy. Wang is researching battery systems, particularly looking into how many charge and discharge cycles can be achieved in locomotive operations.
They have good models that predict the performance of the batteries. The next step, Rahn says, is to look at those models in terms of aging. “One of our questions is, ‘how do you make this battery pack last for five years?’ That involves understanding what causes batteries to age and fail.” Thelen says that working with Penn State has allowed Norfolk Southern to advance its research and development opportunities. “We don’t have the capabilities or knowledge that a university like Penn State has,” he says. “Chao-Yang is one of the top battery people in the country. Even if we did our own testing, we wouldn’t have his subject knowledge. And Chris Rahn’s expertise helps us incorporate that knowledge into the locomotive.” With the success of this collaborative effort, Thelen hopes to develop a closer relationship between Norfolk Southern and Penn State. “We’re very much interested in having graduates work for us, and this is a good project to give us visibility.” Electrochemical Engine Center | http://MTRL1.me.psu.edu
Fall 2009
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Experimental and Computational Convection Lab Researching Heat Transfer Issues in Gas Turbine Blades Part of Thole’s funding comes from government entities like the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy-University of Turbine Systems Research Program. “We also receive funding from several industrial partners,” Thole says. “Our biggest sponsor is Pratt & Whitney, a United Technologies Company, and we’re a Center of Excellence for turbine heat transfer.” Other corporate sponsors of ExCCL include Siemens Energy and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. “We’re fortunate to have good relationships with the people we work with within these industries,” says Thole. “They are very committed to the projects. We do regular teleconferences to make sure we’re going down the right path as the research progresses.”
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hen Karen Thole came to Penn State as the new Department Head of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, she literally transported her lab with her. Located in the Research West Building, her Experimental and Computational Convection Lab (ExCCL) includes a large wind tunnel and other flow facilities, as well as diagnostics such as an infrared camera, laser Doppler velocimeter, particular image velocimeter, and other measurement tools.
In return for the support Thole receives from government and industry funding, the Penn State ExCCL provides data from the lab to help the companies develop their analytical and computational models. “They use our data and our computational fluid dynamics predictions to design new cooling technologies,” she says. “Those have to be benchmarked with the right physics so our data makes sure the right physics are characterized for the engine.”
“Our lab typically does experiments related to heat transfer issues in gas turbine blades and vanes,” Thole says. Hotter gas temperatures lead to more efficient gas turbine engines, she explains, for both power generation and for aircraft propulsion. “The engine operation is limited by the temperature that the blades and vanes in the turbine can withstand, so we’re always pushing the edge in higher temperatures.”
Thole chose this research path because, she says, “I liked things that fly, and I wanted to be a mechanical engineer.” Her post-doctoral research focused on thermal turbine machinery and that inspired her interest in the subject.
Right now, she adds, most gas turbines operate at a condition where the hot gas is at a temperature higher than the melting temperature of the blades. “You can get away with that because of advanced cooling technologies,” she says. “We’re pushing the envelope to make sure we can get good cooling methods that can be manufactured and put into blades and vanes. We’ve developed cooling methods in our laboratory that are being used on actual turbine airfoils today.” Gas turbines have many applications including two common uses: to generate electricity and to fly airplanes. However, fuel particulates in the case of land-based turbines and dust particulates in the case of aircraft turbines can pass through the hot turbine, which affect the cooling methods and do major damage. “We’re looking to mitigate particle problems that appear in gas turbine operations,” says Thole.
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“I enjoy these problems,” she says. “While it sounds very applied, you can break down the problems into fundamentals. Our research provides a good teaching platform for Penn State students to learn fundamentals of heat transfer and fluid mechanics, good experimental skills, and computational prediction methods.”
Dr. Karen Thole
She is also quick to credit the Industrial Research Office for its help in nurturing industry relationships by helping her put together research agreements. “When I decided I wanted to be a department head and was looking at different schools, one of the key aspects was that the school had to be industryfriendly. Penn State is an industry-friendly university,” she says. www.mne.psu.edu/psuexccl
www.iro.psu . e d u / t h e i r o n
upcoming events College of Engineering Design Showcase HUB-Robeson Center • Penn State University Park • December 10, 2009
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he College of Engineering will hold its Fall 2009 Project Showcase at Penn State from 1:00 to 3:30 p.m. on December 10. Students from Aerospace, Bioengineering, Chemical, Computer, Electrical, Industrial, and Mechanical Engineering will display the results of their industry-sponsored projects that they have been working on for the semester. The Learning Factory at Penn State coordinates these successful relationships between the companies and the students. The Summer 2009 edition of The IRON, available at www.iro.psu.edu/theiron, highlighted a start-up company that developed three innovative products at The Learning Factory. www.iro.psu.edu/events
RETECH 2010 - Renewable Energy Technology Conference Washington Convention Center • Washington, DC • February 3-5, 2010
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enn State will be exhibiting in booth #218 for the third consecutive year at RETECH. Returning to the nation’s capital, RETECH 2010 will include over 3,500 attendees, 250 exhibitors on the trade show floor, and 200 speakers in the business conference. RETECH offers industry leaders the ability to share their insights, strategies, technologies, new products and staff capabilities with their audiences. The business conference will include 42 sessions in the following six tracks: strategic issues; industry leadership; federal agencies; state and local; international; and university, laboratory, and R&D. www.iro.psu.edu/energy
Energy & Environment Week David L. Lawrence Convention Center • Pittsburgh, PA • April 12-16, 2010 A culture change on climate change is taking place in the United States. President Obama’s Recovery and Reinvestment Act includes more than $60 billion in clean energy investments. The Energy and Environment Week (EEW) International Conference + Expo focuses on four key areas that will benefit from the new direction in American energy policy: bioenergy with biomass heat & power and biogas; energy from waste & secondary raw materials recovery; alternative vehicle fuels including biofuels, hydrogen & electric mobility; and energy efficiency in industrial processes. With an expected attendance of more than 150 exhibitors and over 2,000 delegates, EEW 2010 will be the premier discussion forum and marketplace for this growth sector. Energy and Environment Week is now held with Energy from Biomass and Waste, co-sponsored by Penn State in 2008 and 2009, and the Hydrogen Expo US. www.ee-week.com
TechConnect World Conference & Expo Anaheim Convention Center • Anaheim, CA • June 21-25, 2010 In 2010, the TechConnect World Conference and Expo will focus on nanotechnologies, clean technologies, and biotechnologies. The conference will also include a TechConnect IP Forum, dedicated for those that generate new technologies and are looking for firms that are interested in licensing opportunities, or are looking for investment partners to take their technology to the next stage. Penn State will be exhibiting at booth #541, highlighting the University’s current research in these areas.
www.iro.psu.edu/TechConnectWorld
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The
Innovation Park at Penn State Featured Invention
Innovation Park at Penn State is a 118-acre business park that provides companies with multiple real estate options and access to Penn State resources and the support services. www.innovationpark.psu.edu
Use of Solid-Phase Buffer to Improve Turfgrass Cultivation U.S. Patent 7,485,171 Inventor: Jonathan Lynch, Professor of Plant Nutrition Penn State Invention Disclosure No. 2813
Industrial Research Office Newsletter Subscribe to the e-Edition of The IRON at www.iro.psu.edu/theiron. The IRON is published three times per year: Spring, Summer, and Fall. Industrial Research Office The Pennsylvania State University 119 Technology Center University Park, PA 16802 814-865-9519 iro@psu.edu www.iro.psu.edu Send comments or suggestions for The IRON to: Gregory Angle, gregangle@psu.edu Marketing Associate
This publication is available in alternative media on request. The Pennsylvania State University is committed to the policy that all persons shall have equal access to programs, facilities, admission, and employment without regard to personal characteristics not related to ability, performance, or qualifications as determined by University policy or by state or federal authorities. It is the policy of the University to maintain an academic and work environment free of discrimination, including harassment. The Pennsylvania State University prohibits discrimination and harassment against any person because of age, ancestry, color, disability or handicap, national origin, race, religious creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or veteran status. Discrimination or harassment against faculty, staff or students will not be tolerated at The Pennsylvania State University. Direct all inquiries regarding the nondiscrimination policy to the Affirmative Action Director, The Pennsylvania State University, 328 Boucke Building, University Park, PA 16802-2801, Tel (814) 865-4700/V, (814) 863-1150/TTY. U.Ed. RES 10-21.
Background Turfgrass is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States. Annual turfgrass seed sales are second only to corn in the United States and rank above soybean and wheat combined. Turfgrass is cultivated in residences, roadsides, municipal areas, and recreational areas, notably golf courses. Golf greens are typically grown under high fertility and are irrigated. Because the turf is mowed at 2-5 mm, the primary stresses in this system are temperature and physical disturbances. Disease pressure is often minimized by the application of pesticides. In order to maintain turfgrass quality, golf courses often employ intensive irrigation and fertilization programs. Invention Description This invention creates a phosphorus buffering system (PBS) at specific depths in the soil, by which phosphorus concentrations in the soil solution are held at a steady level by chemical equilibrium between solid-phase and solutionphase phosphorus. By holding the solution-phase phosphorus at a low level, phosphorus leaching through the soil is greatly reduced, and a steady supply of phosphorus to plant roots is assured, regardless of plant growth rate. The PBS can be recharged on an as-need-basis. Other Patents and Licensable Technologies in this Portfolio • Solid-Phase P Buffer for Sustained, Low-Leaching P Fertilization of Plants (U.S. Patent 5,693,119 • Penn State Disclosure #1269) • Solid-Phase Phosphorus Buffer for Sustained, Low-Leaching Phosphorus Fertilization of Field-Grown Plants (U.S. Patent No. 6,287,357 • Penn State Disclosure #2115) Contact Matthew Smith, Senior Technology Licensing Officer Intellectual Property Office The Pennsylvania State University mds125@psu.edu (814) 863-1122
Visit the iBridge Network to discover 181 more Penn State inventions and licensable technologies. www.ibridgenetwork.org/PSU
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